Syrian Arab Republic 2017

Rania Mustafa Ali, 20, filmed her journey from the ruins of Kobane in Syria to Austria. Her footage shows what many refugees face on their perilous journey to Europe. Rania is cheated by smugglers, teargassed and beaten at the Macedonian border. She risks drowning in the Mediterranean, travelling in a boat meant to hold 15 people but stuffed with 52. Those with disabilities are carried across raging rivers and muddy fields in their wheelchairs. The documentary is produced and directed by Anders Hammer

BAKU - As ISIS has scattered from the conventional battlespace in Syria, the focus has shifted to other parts of the country. The army of al-Assad, backed by Iran and Russia, have confined the rebel militias to pockets all over the country. The most significant rebel concentration is near the city of Idlib, where Turkish-backed militias and Islamist groups are held up.

The war has continued by these parameters, but it has taken a different form. Nearly all the opposition figures who started the anti-government movement are no longer around and goals for regime change have vanished as well. This new phase in the war has little to do with al-Assad, ideology, international law, or even Jihadist groups. Instead, every belligerent wants a piece of influence in Syria, which effectively means the dismemberment of the state.

After four-plus years of fighting, Syria's war has killed at least hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. And, though it started as a civil war, it's become much more than that. It's a proxy war that has divided much of the Middle East, and has drawn in both Russia and the United States. To understand how Syria got to this place, it helps to start at the beginning and watch it unfold:

Subscribe to our channel! 0bsAjO

is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out

Check out our full video catalog: IZONyE
Follow Vox on Twitter: XFrZ5H
Or on Facebook: U2g06o

A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians,[8] Mandeans[9] and Turks. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, and Yazidis. Sunni Arabs make up the largest population group in Syria.
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham), while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[10] In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt.
The modern Syrian state was established after the end of centuries of Ottoman control in World War I as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence as a parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945 when Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate – although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–71. In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic, which was terminated by the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. The Arab Republic of Syria came into being in late 1961 after December 1 constitutional referendum, and was increasingly unstable until the Ba'athist coup d'état, since which the Ba'ath Party has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.[11]
Syria is a member of one international organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it has become suspended from the Arab League on November 2011[12] and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,[13] and self-suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.[14] Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in an uprising against Assad and the Ba'athist government as part of the Arab Spring, a crackdown that contributed to the Syrian Civil War and to Syria's becoming one of the most violent countries in the world.[15] Since the start of the war in 2011, a number of self-proclaimed state entities have since emerged on Syrian territories, including the Syrian Opposition, the of Iraq and the Levant.

The Battle of Mosul (Arabic: معركة الموصل‎‎; Central Kurdish: شەڕی مووسڵ‎) is a joint offensive by Iraqi government forces with allied militias, Iraqi Kurdistan, and international forces to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[49][50][51] The offensive, dubbed Operation "We Are Coming, Nineveh" (قادمون يا نينوى; Qadimun Ya Naynawa),[52][53] began on 16 October 2016, with forces besieging ISIL-controlled areas in the Nineveh Governorate surrounding Mosul.[54][55][56] The battle for Mosul is considered key in the military intervention against ISIL, which seized the city in June 2014.[57] Outnumbering ISIL forces 10 to 1, it is the largest deployment of Iraqi troops since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[58]
The operation follows the Mosul offensives in 2015 and 2016. The offensive began with Iraqi troops and Peshmerga fighters engaging ISIL on three fronts outside Mosul, going from village to village in the surrounding area. More than 120 towns and villages were liberated from ISIL control in the first two weeks of fighting. At dawn on 1 November, Iraqi Special Operations Forces entered the city on the eastern front.[59] Met with fierce fighting, the government advance into the city was slowed by elaborate defenses – including road blocks, booby traps, suicide bombers and snipers – and by the presence of civilians.[60]
The Battle of Mosul is concurrent with the Battle of Sirte (2016) in Libya and the Raqqa offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on ISIL's capital city and stronghold in Syria.[61]

A country of fertile plains, high mountains, and deserts, Syria is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including Syrian Arabs, Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians,[8] Mandeans[9] and Turks. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, and Yazidis. Sunni Arabs make up the largest population group in Syria.
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham), while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the 3rd millennium BC. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.[10] In the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt.
The modern Syrian state was established after the end of centuries of Ottoman control in World War I as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence as a parliamentary republic on 24 October 1945 when Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the former French Mandate – although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–71. In 1958, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic, which was terminated by the 1961 Syrian coup d'état. The Arab Republic of Syria came into being in late 1961 after December 1 constitutional referendum, and was increasingly unstable until the Ba'athist coup d'état, since which the Ba'ath Party has maintained its power. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens. Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.[11]
Syria is a member of one international organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it has become suspended from the Arab League on November 2011[12] and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,[13] and self-suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.[14] Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in an uprising against Assad and the Ba'athist government as part of the Arab Spring, a crackdown that contributed to the Syrian Civil War and to Syria's becoming one of the most violent countries in the world.[15] Since the start of the war in 2011, a number of self-proclaimed state entities have since emerged on Syrian territories, including the Syrian Opposition, the of Iraq and the Levant.